Formation of the Moon

A detailed Summary of Formation of the Moon

There are many things in the macrocosm that we have never known of. We know simple things about the moon such as its craters or mountain ranges, but do we know exactly how the moon came to be? When we contrast its lunar surface characteristics with the Earth's, it is apparent that they came from completely different physical developments, 1 but it still isn't enough information. Many people probably have never thought about or don't know that there are several theories regarding how the moon was formed. The most popular and common idea is that it came from our earth. Before the 1970's, there were three main theories regarding the origin of the moon.2 Soon after that, gradually a few more theories were made.

In 1879, the fission theory was developed by the British astronomer Sir George Darwin.3 The Moon was once part of the Earth and somehow divided from the it early in the past of the Solar System. The most popular location for the part of the Earth where the Moon originated from is the current Pacific Ocean basin is.4 In other words, while it was still fluid and hot the moon broke off from a rapidly spinning earth.3 A co-formation theory proposed that the earth and moon both formed at t

In addition, the most widely accepted model for the origin of the moon is the impact of a colliding planet. The contact of earth-orbiting and Sun-orbiting Planetesimals (very large chunks of rocks like asteroids) early in the history of the Solar System started their split up. The Moon condensed from this debris.4 NASA's Lunar Prospector recently sent back data to the earth that appears to sustain the theory that the moon was created by a massive impact with earth that split the moon. The argument that the moon has a core is fundamental to the Collisional theory and the object that produced the impact would be more or less the size of Mars. The moon's core is still very small, which leads to Dr. Alan Binder of Lunar Research Institute, Tucson, AX, and the principal investigator for Lunar Prospector, who said, "This [core data] is a critical finding in helping scientists determine how the earth and moon formed.5

The other theory states that the moon cross the threshold of the Roche zone (steadiness from tidal cut off) around earth and was gradually pulled form its current orbit into a parabolic orbit around earth. The parabolic orbit slowly rounded out to its current near symmetric orbit around the earth today. The capture theories were very popular in the 1960's, but now their popularity has decrease due to the amount of energy it would be needed to seize an object the size of the moon from a secluded region of the solar system.5

The Colliding Planetesimals Theory:

A planetesimal the size of Mars struck the earth, ejecting larg

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Approximate Word count = 1043
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science